“During the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ the mu’adhdhin would give the adhān for Maghrib. The Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would then hurry to the mosque pillars and pray two rakʿahs before Maghrib, continuing until the Messenger of Allah ﷺ came out while they were still praying. A newcomer would arrive and assume that the obligatory prayer had already been offered because of the great number of people praying those two rakʿahs. The interval between the adhān and the iqāmah was very brief.”

234 – “During the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ the mu’adhdhin would give the adhān for Maghrib. The Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would then hurry to the mosque pillars and pray two rakʿahs before Maghrib, continuing until the Messenger of Allah ﷺ came out while they were still praying. A newcomer would arrive and assume that the obligatory prayer had already been offered because of the great number of people praying those two rakʿahs. The interval between the adhān and the iqāmah was very brief.”

It was recorded by al-Bukhārī (2/85), Ibn Naṣr (p. 26), and Aḥmad (3/280) through several isnāds from Shuʿbah, from ʿAmr ibn ʿĀmir, who said: “I heard Anas ibn Mālik say …” and he mentioned it. The wording cited above is Ibn Naṣr’s; the second addition is found in al-Bukhārī and Aḥmad, and Ibn Naṣr also transmits it with the wording just quoted.

Muslim (2/212), Abū ʿAwānah in his Ṣaḥīḥ (2/265), and al-Bayhaqī (2/475) likewise relate it by way of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Ṣuhayb from Anas with similar wording, including the first addition. Ibn Naṣr and al-Musnad (3/129, 199, 282) preserve additional routes from Anas along the same lines.

This ḥadīth is an explicit textual proof for the legitimacy of two rakʿahs before the Maghrib prayer, for the senior Companions competed to perform them and the Prophet ﷺ approved their practice. The two previously cited aḥādīth provide general corroboration as well. Imām Aḥmad, Isḥāq, and the scholars of ḥadīth therefore held them to be recommended. Those who disagreed—such as the Ḥanafīs and others—possess no evidence worthy of consideration except the report narrated by Shuʿbah from Abū Shuʿayb, from Ṭāwūs, who said: